BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider

MADISON, Wis. — Back in the day, Wisconsin rowing coaches had a unique, somewhat ingenious approach to recruiting talent for their men's and women's teams.

At the start of each new school year, they would stake out the old class registration lines looking for taller, sinewy body types. If they spotted someone who seemed to fit the profile, the coaches would approach the prospect and ask if they'd be interested in trying out for crew.

When Randy Jablonic, the legendary UW men's rowing coach, came upon Peggy (McCarthy) Bailey, he didn't notice that she was wearing three-inch platform shoes that made her 5-foot-9 frame look 6 feet tall.

"All he saw was the top of my head," Bailey recalled.

Jablonic didn't know it at the time, but Bailey was an athletic neophyte at Madison Memorial High School. She rode horses and knew how to sail, but there was nothing on her resume that suggested she was a future Olympian in a sport like rowing.

Bailey listened to Jablonic's sales pitch and agreed to try out.

"I don't know why I went because I hadn't done anything in high school," she said. "I instantly knew it was for me, the camaraderie and the atmosphere of the boat house and the support from the women there.

"I just fell into it. It changed my life. It gave me such a strong sense of confidence. It was a big deal."

Yes, it was.

Though just a freshman, Bailey was in the first UW women's varsity eight boat to win a national title in 1975. She won a bronze medal as the youngest rower with Team USA in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and qualified to compete again in the 1980 Games in Moscow only to have the Americans boycott the event.

Not bad when you consider her UW coach, Jay Mimier, once offered a humbling critique of Bailey's skill set.

"He said I couldn't row my way out of a brown paper bag," she said with a laugh.

Funny, when asked to identify the most impactful person during her time at Wisconsin, Bailey said Mimier.

"There was just something about him that resonated with me and motivated me," she said.

Bailey turned out to be a wunderkind of sorts.

"Frankly, she was the best athlete I ever coached," Mimier said. "I only coached there seven years, but there's no one I'd put on the same level as her."

Mimier noted that when Bailey was a senior in 1978 she took part in a series of fitness tests coordinated by U.S. Rowing.

"Her scores were way above anyone else on the national team," he said.

Sue Ela was a senior in that national championship boat and later became the UW women's coach.

"Right from the start she was always a really hard worker," Ela said of Bailey. "I just always remember her as one of the toughest competitors, whatever we were doing."

The career path that Bailey followed has put her under another spotlight. She's part of the latest class of inductees to the UW Athletic Hall of Fame.

 

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High Five

One: Bailey is the fourth member of that inaugural national championship boat to be added to the UW hall, joining Ela, Carie Graves and Jackie Zoch.

"It's a very elite group," Bailey said. "I was really thrilled to be a part of it.

"It's great company. I'm honored to be with these women in the hall of fame."

Two: Bailey has now been inducted into four halls of fame, including the Madison Sports Hall of Fame and the U.S. Rowing Association Hall of Fame as a member of the '76 and '80 Olympic boats.

Three: Bailey became emotional when talking about Graves, the Spring Green, Wis., product who rowed in three Olympics and won a gold medal in 1984. Graves died in 2021 due to complications from Alzheimer's disease. She was part of the inaugural class of inductees to the UW Athletic Hall of Fame in 1991 and is enshrined in the U.S. Rowing Association Hall of Fame.

"We were really close," Bailey said in a halting voice. "She was such an icon. So many people looked up to her. She just instilled a sense of confidence in me."

Four: Bailey, a water resources engineer in New Mexico, was initially tabbed to go into the UW Hall of Fame in 2022, but she had already made plans to take part in a masters rowing competition in Europe. Thus, Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh told Bailey to plan on being available this year.

"It's special," she said of the honor. "I was overwhelmed."

Five: How did being a student-athlete at UW affect Bailey's life?

"It affected most everything about me, about how I conducted my life," she said. "When I was in high school, I was not involved with organized athletics. I don't know why. Maybe I didn't think I could do it or I was busy. It just didn't dawn on me that it was something I should do."